BEIJING (Reuters) – China acknowledged a visit by the Cook Islands leader for the first time on Thursday, amid exasperation in New Zealand that it was not consulted about expected agreements involving the South Pacific nation, with which Wellington has constitutional ties.
China’s foreign ministry said China is willing to have an “in-depth exchange of views” with the Cook Islands, with its Prime Minister Mark Brown set to meet China’s premier on his visit, which is already under way. The visit is from February 10 to 16.
Brown has been invited to the closing ceremony of the Asian Winter Games in the northeastern city of Harbin where Chinese Premier Li Qiang will be attending, the ministry said.
Brown’s trip to China, the first by a leader of the small South Pacific nation in a decade, has drawn ire from New Zealand, with whom the Cook Islands has a special political relationship.
The self-governing Pacific country, which sits halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, can interact with the international community as an independent state, but New Zealand provides budget support and commits to defend the island nation, whose people are New Zealand citizens.
On his visit, Brown is expected to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership with China involving infrastructure, trade and the economy. An angry New Zealand said it had not been consulted. It remained unclear what pact Brown would actually sign.
The Cook Islands is China’s cooperation partner in the South Pacific region, a foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a regular press conference on Thursday.
“Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries have always respected each other, treated each other as equals, and developed together,” Guo said.
“In 2018, bilateral relations were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership.”
In 2018, in a meeting with leaders from eight Pacific island countries, including then Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to elevate China’s diplomatic ties with the group of nations.
In China this week, Brown has held discussions with institutions on marine science, climate resilience and economic cooperation, he said in a Facebook post on Thursday, adding that his conversations in China had opened doors to new areas of collaboration, including expanding marine research capabilities with Chinese partners.
New Zealand’s government has said its concerns about Brown’s visit to China stem from not having seen the agreements that he plans to sign ahead of the trip, even though it asked to review them.
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu, Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Himani Sarkar, William Maclean)
